Kitiara of Autumn Twilight
by Sallyluv
Summary: If Kitiara had returned to the Inn of the Last Home with the rest of the Companions.


The best reason for discluding Kitiara as part of the returning Companions in Autumn Twilight is that she would clearly be at odds with Tanis for the leadership position.

In imaginings, however, it makes things a lot more juicy.

I don't believe in calling anything written off of a Dragonlance novel to be Fanfiction. It's all by different authors and the idea itself is based on a game designed by someone else. It's just some of our ideas got published and some didn't.

As far as this story is concerned, that trip to the red moon never happened. It was a poorly written attempt at making some semblance to the rumors of Kitiara and Sturm. As far as I can see, it happened like this.

They traveled north together. On night they were both feeling very lonely and in Sturm's case melancholy, when the mood struck. Before Sturm woke in the morning Kitiara was gone. Easy as that.

If Kitiara had come back, but of course under false pretenses. Reader's digest version, I'm not going through all the scenery and setting we've all read a billion times. I think I read Twilight about 30 times, it's gotten me through some rough patches knowing that it could always be worse.

"Are we all here?" Tanis asked idley, looking around the bean-shaped inn.

"Not quite-"

With a bang of the door in stepped a dark-haired young woman with fire in her eyes and a smear of green blood on her cheek. As she stepped inside she called out, "Where's my brothers?"

"Kit!" Caramon exclaimed, on her at once with his infamous bear-hug.

"Easy, my brother, I just wasted two hobgoblins and I'm still feeling feisty."

Caramon released her with a hearty chuckle. "Come on, the others are already here."

Tanis pulled out a chair for Kitiara as she approached. With an arch look she accepted his chivalry even though it seemed she wasn't really inclined to to so.

"Kitiara!" Tasslehoff yelped. "We almost thought you wouldn't come! Say, what's that on your face?"

Tas reached up and wiped off the smear of hobgoblin blood before Kitiara could stop him. "I had to kill something before I got here, now I need a drink..."

With impeccable timing Tika returned to the table and set a glass of dark rum before Kitiara before passing ale to everyone else.

"That is some very fine service," Kitiara said, grinning at Tika who smiled coyly in return. The warrior woman did a double-take before opening her mouth in surprise. "Tika Waylan! Shit, is that you?"

"It's been years, Kitiara. I've grown up now."

"I can see that," Kitiara said, eyeing the young woman's curves. "You were so skinny when I left, when did you fill out so nice?"

Tika blushed, "I, um..."

"That's all right, kid," Kitiara said with a laugh. "Too many men around, I understand. I want some girl talk with you later, " she winked. "For now just get me another glass of rum and some more potatos for my brother if you don't mind."

Tika nodded. As she turned to walk away Kitiara gave her a friendly smack on the bottom before turning back to the companions.

"You haven't changed at all, sister," came Raistlin's snakey voice from the shadow of the fire.

Kitiara looked at him, "Is that my other baby brother? So, you finally took the test. I thought you would've had a different color, but no matter. You proved me wrong, I didn't think you'd ever do it."

Raistlin pulled his hood back to show his sister the marks of suffering left on him by the Tower of High Sorcery. "It did come with a price," he said, looking over the gold skin on one of his hands.

"I can see that, what happend to you there?"

"I am forbidden to speak of the test itself," he rasped. "But I have this flesh to mark my suffering, and my eyes...do you see my eyes, sister?"

She peered at him closely, then with surprise, "They're just like little hourglasses! How'd they do that?"

Raistlin shrugged, "I see time as it affects all things. You, our brother, our friends..." he trailed off in a long hiss, something that annoyed Kitiara to no end.

"So everything's rotting and dying? How do you mix your magic herbs? Wouldn't they just look like dust to you?"

Tasslehoff was the only one that laughed, all the others were too much in fear of the mage to manage so much as a giggle. Raistlin sneered at his sister before drawing his hood back over his face and leaning back into the shadow of the fire. Kitiara was still grinning when she turned to Tanis.

"As for you," she said in a low voice. Tanis leaned into the conversation.

Tas soon grew bored with the group and wandered over to the fire where the old man was telling stories to children and the two barbarian strangers. The old man was spinning a yarn about Huma and the Dragon. Tas, in and out of daydreaming as usual, perked up at the sound of the name "Paladine."

"Kender," Flint said with a harrumph. He swallowed the last of his ale and hailed Tika for another round. "What're you drinking, Kit?"

"Rum, you barmy old codger. We're not doing another drinking contest. _I_ was the poor sucker who had to lug you back to your bed last time!"

Flint spluttered a protest, Tanis laughed.

"She outdrank you? When was this?" Sturm questioned, seemingly having snapped out of a reverie.

"That was an unfair contest! They must've watered down your drinks, I want a rematch!"

"Why would they water down my drinks when even Otik bet that you would beat me? The odds were about twenty-to-one, and the one was me."

"Nonsense, no human can out drink a dwarf. Something was amiss, I would've figured it out, too, if-"

"If you hadn't been out cold after the seventeenth shot? I did make it all the way to twenty, by the way. Just for the sake of integrity."

"We'll do it again with _real_ dwarf spirits."

"Not tonight," Kitiara amended just as the High Theocrat stuck his hand into the fire.

There was a great deal of commotion. Somehow the companions got roped into being associated with the barbarian woman and her evil staff of magic.

Kitiara stood and stretched like a cat before sauntering into the confusion. She reached Tanis just as Tika came by to urge their escape through the kitchen.

The companions found themselves traipsing through the forest towards Crystalmir Lake. They would've stayed at Tika's house, but as it happened the High Theocrat ordered a house-to-house search for the barbarian woman's staff. They thought it to be the blue crystal staff that Tanis had been stopped on the road for by Fewmaster Toede.

At last they came to the lake. Flint, of course, was immovable.

"You ridiculous old coot!" Kitiara hollared at him as she knocked Tas out of the rower's seat and took it up herself. "How am I suppose to out drink you again if you stay here and die?"

"See you by the Great Forge, Kit! I'm dying warm!"

The remainder piled into the boat, the barbarian man pushed the boat off into the water before climbing inside and settling next to his woman.

Not but a few seconds into the lake were they when Flint's voice echoed across the water. "Wait!" he cried, plunging into the lake. "Wait for me!"

The hobgoblins were on the shore now, shooting poison-tipped arrows at them. Kitiara brought the boat around, Caramon grabbed the dwarf and dragged him into the vessel. The warrior woman laughed as she rowed out into the lake, trying to get away from the hobgoblins.

"You'll die warm, eh?" she cackled. "Guess this was a much better idea than getting in the boat on the shore?"

"Shut up, Kit," Caramon said. Flint had been trying to sputter the same thing but found he was shaking too badly to muster up a syllable.

"They can already see us, what's it matter if they hear us?"

"Raist is casting."

Kitiara looked at her brother who indeed was muttering some words of magic. "Ast tasarak sinularan krynawi!" he said and hobgoblins dropped where they stood.

"Are they dead?" Kitiara asked, squinting into then night.

"Sleeping," Raistlin said, winded. "They'll be well-rested when they continue their pursuit tomorrow."

"We're still getting a head-start, almost at the other side already."

A few minutes later Kitiara hopped out of the boat and dragged it to shore as the others clambered out and into the tree line. Flint wouldn't move until Kitiara threatened to pull him out by the beard, after that he hurried into the trees.

It was Sturm that found the cave, which the others were very pleased to enter. All the others except the barbarians who followed reluctantly, making certain that their saviours knew they were only still with them out of necessity.

They made their introductions in the cave. They were from the Que-shu tribe, but that much they already knew from Tas' earlier assessment. The woman was the daughter of the cheiftan there, her name was Goldmoon. The man, clearly in love with her, was Riverwind.

Kitiara lounged by the fire next to Flint who was sitting stiffly, wide-eyed. After a while she pulled a flask from her belt and handed it to him. Greedily he took a drink, barely managing to swallow.

"Reorx! What in the name of the Abyss is that?"

"It's called absynth, I got it off a mercenary. Said he learned to brew it from gnomes."

"No wonder it tastes like..." he drifted off, the drink was already taking its toll.

Kitiara snickered. She looked at Tanis who was, big surprise, playing diplomat between Sturm and Riverwind. Her gaze went to the fire as she recalled what Verminaard had told her.

_"There is great future ahead for your friends," he said, looking sallow and pale as he always did when there was a new prophesy at hand. "You will return to them and make sure their destinies are twisted. It will be difficult. They, too, have unseen helpers._"

"Kitiara," piped Tas coming over to fire to sit beside her. "What did you see when you went north? Are the rumors true?"

"Would I be here if they were? Certainly I trained with a warband in the north and we had our share of campaigns but as far as armies amassing there, it's all travelers tales made to entice the imagination."

"When did you and Sturm part ways?"

"Just before Solomnia. Where have you been running around these five years?"

That was it, it was over. Kitiara took a giant gulp of absynth before falling asleep listening to the kender prattle on about his journeys.

The morning began as usual, the companions falling into old patterns with each other and trying to find ways for their new additions to fit in. It wasn't long before they hit the trail again.

They were traveling to Haven, seeking the clerics there. Goldmoon hoped they could tell her something about her staff.

"Hey little bro," Kitiara said to Raistlin as she dropped back to walk beside him.

"Tell me, sister," he whispered, scarcely audible over the slight breeze worrying the leaves on the trees. "Did the north satiate your appetites?"

"In many ways, yes," she replied. "But my lust for sex and war are hardly comparable to your own lust for power. Who did that staff belong to?"

"A very powerful mage who lived before the Cataclysm."

"And it is your most precious possession, this thing of power? I don't see how you can scorn my endeavors when your own has left you little hope for pleasures of the flesh. I'm guessing you still haven't been with a woman? You better find a blind girl, because you look like a lizard."

Raistlin burst into a fit of coughing, Kitiara grinned. Caramon looked back at his brother, concern lining his face.

"Mind your business, Caramon. If you fuss over him one more time I'll rip out one of your lungs and stuff it down his throat."

Caramon blanched and turned back to his conversation with Tas who once again was going on about floating plants.

Flint looked his half-elf companion, "You know, sometimes I really worry about your taste in women."

The sun through the trees just ahead of them hinted that a road lay just beyond. The companions grew apprehensive as they stepped out of the trees and into the open.

"Tas, scout ahead," Tanis said and off went the kender.

"Tanis," Kitiara said as the others stood there, waiting for the other boot to drop.

He walked back to her, she was leaning against an oak tree. "I need you."

"For what?" Tanis said, oblivious.

Kitiara licked her lips slowly, moving a hand to untie his breeches. Tanis stopped her.

"We can't, not here."

"Later, then? Fine, but I'm going to jump you of no where. If you want to be a little rough, feel free."

She winked and went to talk to Goldmoon. Riverwind, playing bodyguard, headed her off. "What do you want?"

"Riverwind," Goldmoon said. "It's alright."

With a mean look the barbarian man gave the women some distance. "I have been very much wanting to speak with you," Goldmoon said her accent purring against the Common words.

"Really?"

"Yes, I have never known a woman to be like you."

"I'm not really your normal human woman."

"No, you are very much stronger. Still, your heart is torn. Why?"

Luckily for Kitiara, at that moment Tas came running up the road and waved his arm three times. The others hurried back into the concealment of the forest.

"Clerics," Tas panted. "Dragging a cart."

"I'm not hiding from clerics," Flint stated.

Tas caught the dwarf's arm and looked back to Tanis. "They're strange, they gave me a creepy feeling."

With that the others exchanged wary glances. Nothing gave kender a creepy feeling.

Before Tanis could make a decision, Sturm pushed his way out of the trees and wandered up the road a little until he came to a low fence. Leaning up against it he set his hand on his hilt and waited. Kitiara went out to wait with him.

Tanis almost went after her, but the clerics were coming around the bend. Sturm stiffened as Kitiara leaned against the fence next to him. The clerics were upon them, it seemed they were traveling to Solace to find the blue crystal staff to heal their brother who was laying ill in the cart. Tanis felt what Tas had, these clerics were not to be trusted.

Kitiara, thankfully, wasn't saying much. Tanis had the impression that she had only gone out into the open with Sturm in case things got ugly. Then Goldmoon made a move that could've cost them all their lives.

"I can help you," she said, stepping onto the road Tanis swore he saw Kitiara's mouth form the words "Dumb bitch."

She had the staff, she asked to see their brother cleric in the cart. She saw him, she saw him as he was.

A creature unlike any they had seen sprung from the cart as the other clerics removed their black shrouds. They were reptiles, to put it simply, but in the bodies of men. Those certainly had not been prayer books under their robes, but blood-crusted swords which they drew with a dreadful readiness.

Even with her harsh appraisel of Goldmoon's decision, Kitiara smiled with the prospect of a battle.


End file.
